It is a common practice to trim the hair extending out of the nostrils or growing in the ears for aesthetic or health reasons. Many devices are used for this task. The devices range from small manicuring scissors or clippers, to specially made cutting devices or machines specifically designed for the task.
There are known devices for trimming nostril or ear hair which utilize a rotary blade to cut the hair. Examples of such devices are described in the following U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,574 to Johnston, No. 2,191,073 to Fishbein et al., No. 2,074,020 to Marholt, and No. 1,973,631 to Johnson. In these devices, a central rotary blade is disposed within a protective guard. The protective guard is provided with a series of slots for receiving hairs to be cut. The rotary blade is rotated manually to cut the hairs which are received in the slots in the protective guard. Other similar devices include a motor for driving the rotary blade within the protective guard. Examples of this type of motorized device are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,012,576 to Johannesson and No. 3,731,379 to Williams. The nostril hair trimming devices which utilize a rotary blade suffer from the disadvantages that the rotary blades are complicated and expensive to manufacture. The blades are not designed to be readily replaceable and sharpening the miniature blades is very difficult. If the blades become dull, proper cutting is not obtained, in which case nostril hairs can be pulled or yanked by the dull rotary blade causing discomfort and irritation to the user. In addition, the rotary blade type hair trimming devices can be unsanitary in that they are very difficult to clean. In such devices, the cut hairs are received and cut within the protective guards and there are no means for easily expelling the hairs from the devices after they have been cut.
Other known devices for trimming hair in the nostril utilize miniature clippers which include a stationary cutter member with a plurality of teeth and an adjacent reciprocating cutter member with a plurality of teeth. Hairs which enter the gaps between the teeth of the stationary cutter member are cut off when the adjacent reciprocating cutter member reciprocates past the stationary cutter member and the hairs are sheared. Examples of these known clipper devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,275,180 to Holsclaw and No. 2,055,129 to Hill et al. The clipper type hair trimming devices suffer from the disadvantage that the cutter members are expensive to manufacture and are difficult to maintain. In addition, the clippers can present the risk of cuts if the clippers are pressed against the skin of a user, since the skin can be pinched or cut by the reciprocating cutter member. Finally, clipper-type trimmers also can yank and pull the nostril hairs especially when the clipper edges become dull.
There are also known razor-type nostril hair trimming devices. Examples of razor-type hair trimming devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,229,824 to Tewelow, No. 3,574,936 to Bullerman, No. 2,139,680 to Heinrich, and No. 2,089,486 to Kuhn. The devices disclosed in the aforementioned patents to Tewelow and to Bullerman utilize straight razor blades having a guard along the sharpened edges. The straight razor blades are scraped along the inner wall of the nostril in order to shave off the hair. The razor-type hair trimming devices with a straight blade suffer from the disadvantages that they are believed ineffective in easily cutting hairs from the different curved nostril inner surfaces, from which many hairs extend.
The miniature razor trimming device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,139,680 to Heinrich utilizes a flat blade having a curved sharpened edge. The blade is angularly mounted on the end of a miniature head. A guard is provided for protecting the user from the sharpened edge of the blade. The miniature razor however suffers from the disadvantage that the blades which require a semicircular sharpened edge are difficult to manufacture.
The nasal razor disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,089,486 to Kuhn uses a very short stiff curved steel razor blade positioned between a pair of hinged supports which are mounted to a handle. This nasal trimming device appears to suffer from the disadvantage that its rigid curved blade is useful only when used in a side scraping fashion. The nasal razor is quite small, and by necessity, the miniature blade is also very small, and therefore appears difficult to manufacture and handle. In addition, the blade is not provided with a long straight edge which is desirable for trimming hairs in certain parts of the nostril.
Thus, there has been a continuing need for some simple, inexpensive, lightweight device for enabling an individual to easily trim the nostril hairs without fear of any accidental cuts or scrapes within the nose. Such a hair trimming device for nostril hair should be capable of safely and effectively trimming hair from both curved and straight surfaces.
Further, there is a need for a nostril hair trimming device which has an easily-detached, disposable cutting head or deck, with a substantially permanent reusable handle or fingergrip support structure. There is also a need for a nose hair trimming device that is so small, compact and lightweight that it can fit in a very small size travel toiletry kit or manicuring kit, and can be easily carried around virtually undetected in one's pocket or purse.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide a small, simple-to-operate manual nose hair trimmer with a long curved razor-sharp blade strip which satisfies most if not all of the foregoing needs. An additional object is to also provide such a device which is extremely reliable and safe to use, and which does not require electric power.
A further object is to provide such a nose trimmer with a small grip portion that may be gripped solely in the user's fingertips, for maximum maneuverability. In this way, the user will be able deftly to cut nostril hairs even in the difficult to reach frontal cavity or pocket of each nostril. One more object is to provide an effective cutter head portion which is so small that it can be comfortably inserted into and moved around within a nostril.
One more object is to provide a curved blade hair shaving device which is sufficiently inexpensive so that it may be discarded and replaced frequently. Another object is to provide a nose hair trimming device that does not use a scissors action, and does not have any internal moving parts to break or bind up. One more object is to provide a nostril hair trimming instrument that never pulls or yanks out nostril hairs.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a cutter portion on a hair shaving device which employs a curved razor blade end-cutting geometry, so that the topmost part of the cutter section of the device can cut hair by a shaving action as well as the side blade strip portion of the cutter section, by using a single sharpened razor blade strip bent into a curved loop configuration.
Another object of the present invention is to use a thin elongated strip of stainless steel provided with a razor-sharp edge that can be mass-produced with ease as the operative tool that is used to shave or cut hair, especially nostril hair. A related important object of the invention is to curve or bend the razor-blade strip into a loop or U-shape to provide the desired end cutting and side-cutting geometry from a single elongated strip of metal alloy having at least one razor sharp edge. A further related object is to provide a cutter head structure that employs a curved elongated razor blade strip within a guard structure that can be easily cleaned to facilitate its reuse.
Yet another object is to provide an easily cleaned curved loop razor blade structure, to facilitate reuse of the curved blade shaving device, which may be a nose hair trimmer, as long as the blade edge remains sufficiently sharp.
Another object is to provide a guarded curved blade shaving device, such as nose hair trimming device, which is inherently easy to operate, so that with a minimum of practice, a user need not even look in a mirror as he uses the device to shave his nostrils or other curved body portions with the device, i.e., those cavities which the end cutting bent loop shape can reach.
Another object of this invention is to provide a razor-sharp nose hair trimmer device which has a manually removable and replaceable, plastic cover which fits over the cutter head for encasing the sharp edge, and is frictionally held in place on the handle, so that it can be stored and transported safely.